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Sunny Rainy Saturday

Today was supposed to be our community picnic. I volunteered to help set up, hoping I could actually be helpful with Jack and Casey in tow. We arrived just on time for setup. Also arriving with us were huge black rain clouds. Instead of helping with setup, we ended up picking up all the kids’ games that were already out and putting them away before the rain could destroy them.

I thought it would be a good idea to wear a cute skirt for the party. The wind also thought it was fun to blow it around every which way, including up a couple of times. The wind was also blowing some of the game balls down the street. I asked Jack to run after them and pick them up. A minute later I looked around could not find him. I couldn’t imagine where he had gone. Maybe I just didn’t see him and he was behind a table. Nope. It was only a matter of about 30 seconds but it was starting to worry me. Then, he comes running out from behind one of the houses. He had chased the balls all the way into a backyard. I was actually pretty proud of him for chasing them so far…and relieved that he was in my sight again.

At this point, the wind really picked up and rain was about to start. I quickly loaded the kids back into the stroller and pulled the plastic cover down over them. Just as we started walking again, it started raining. And then it rained harder. And then it rained even harder. I thought the kids were staying dry but I forgot to cover one spot and rain was coming in behind their heads. I was jogging but it was into the wind and I was wearing a skirt and crocs. I was trying not to break my foot again but also trying to get home as quickly as possible.

When we got home I was soaked all the way through and the kids were wet enough that they needed new clothes too. Jack tried to take off his shorts without taking his shoes off first and apparently he found that a little difficult. I was upstairs changing, closing all the windows and cleaning up all the rain that had come in the house. I could hear him whining and carrying on, but I thought I’d let him work it out himself. When I came down to help Jack, he was laying flat on the floor at the foot of the stairs, in his Elmo undies with his shorts around his ankles and his shoes still on. I wish I had a picture.

Anyway, it was an adventurous 15 minutes. I couldn’t help but laugh the whole way home as it poured on me. One of our neighbors was driving by and offered me a ride but at that point, I was already wet and it didn’t really matter. I’m hoping they’ll have the picnic next weekend and Pat will be able to join us but we’ll check it out later this afternoon and see if they decided to start over again after the rain went through. It figures that it was only a half hour rain event.